spacetoday.net: Rockot launches nine satellites

Posted: Mon, Jun 30, 2003, 2:39 PM ET (1839 GMT)
Rockot booster in flight (DLR/Spaceflight Now)

A Rockot booster launched a collection of small satellites, including a Canadian space telescope, on Monday. The Rockot lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 10:15 am EDT (1415 GMT), reaching orbit approximately 10 minutes later. The booster carried nine spacecraft, the largest of which was a mockup of Monitor E, a proposed Russian remote sensing satellite. Besides Monitor E, the Rockot carried the Canadian satellite MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars), a 60-kg space telescope the size of a suitcase designed to measure minute fluctuations in the brightness of stars; and MIMOSA (Micromeasurements of Satellite Acceleration), a Czech satellite that will measure the density of the upper atmosphere. Also on board the Rockot were six microsatellites built by universities in Canada, Denmark, Japan, and the US. The launch was the first for the Rockot since the launch of two spare Iridium satellites just over one year ago. Another Rockot launch, of the Japanese satellite SERVIS-1, is scheduled for October.